Cracking the whip, Railways have imposed heavy fines totalling Rs 11.5 lakh on nine caterers including Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation for serving “bad quality” food in trains.
“We had launched a special drive last month to detect quality of food being served on different trains. We found bad quality food on some trains and action was taken against caterers accordingly,” a senior railway ministry official said.
Besides IRCTC, RK Associates, Sunshine Caterers, Satyam Caterers, Brandavan Food Products were among those fined. “IRCTC was fined Rs 1 lakh as a cockroach was found in the food in Kolkata Rajdhani on July 23,” the official said, adding, “Bad food was found in 13 trains.”
While in some trains food was found to be kept in unhygienic conditions, in others it was either found to be stale or substandard, the official said, adding, fines ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh have been imposed. “A caterer would lose licence, if found at fault 5 times,” the official said.
Plagued by a number of complaints regarding the quality of food, Railways have made a concerted attempt to improve quality of food being served in trains.
